I contribute a monthly weather and climate outlook to the cotton and peanut newsletters that UGA produces each month during the growing season. You might be interested in what it says.
May 2024 Weather and Climate Outlook
Pam Knox, Agricultural Climatologist
Here’s a brief look at the weather and climate I am expecting in May in Georgia. The first ten days of the month are expected to be mainly warmer than normal with a lot of sunshine. There will likely be at least one rain event around the weekend of the 4th-5th before returning to warm and dry conditions. By May 9-11 the weather will start becoming more interesting with a cold front moving into the region. It could be quite hot in the warm air ahead of the front but as the front gets closer it will increase in cloudiness and another round of rain will occur as the front moves through the area. Temperatures are likely to cool off for the third week of May before returning to warmer than normal conditions for the rest of the month.
Precipitation in the first half of the month is expected to be at least 2 inches for most of the state, with the northwest corner receiving over 3 inches. The driest part of the region will be the southeast counties, with total amounts of 1-2 inches by May 15. The last two weeks of the month are expected to be drier than normal but it is too far out to predict amounts.
The tropics this time of year are quiet, although there was one brief center of activity in the Central Atlantic that disappeared quickly. However, sea surface temperatures are at July levels, so once we start to see some activity, it could develop quickly. We have seen storms in May before, so it would not surprise me if a named storm developed this year before the end of the month. So far, so good, and any storm that does develop so early would probably not make landfall.
